Malawi School Project

A Brighter Future through Education

ASC’s first project was to build
the Thitimila secondary school in the very poor Mzimba region of Malawi.Dr Newton Matupi who knows the area well is the lead Trustee working with the
community school committee.

The Vision

We learned that several villages had come together to fulfil their dream of building a secondary school which would provide their children with the knowledge and skills they needed to break out of poverty and build a better more sustainable future.

Despite huge financial sacrifices to themselves village heads, church leaders
and parents raised funds to start building
the school but funds quickly ran out
and work came to a standstill.

Building work

With a huge effort both from Newton overseeing the build with local tradesman, the following has been completed:

the first school block
two teachers Houses
temporary pit toilets for girls and boys
installation of solar powered electricity
the bore hole and hand pump

Vegetable Garden

With the help of ASC the deputy head and students are planning a garden which will help provide fruit and vegetables to supplement their school meal and help provide a balanced diet.

Clean Water

Clean water was the first priority for the school
Prior to this, villagers had to walk 2 km to fetch clean water
Much to the delight of the whole community and with the support of a global engineering company, who offered their services pro bono, a bore hole with a hand pump has now been installed
Cost £10,000

The School is open!

We are so delighted to announce the opening of the Thitimila Secondary School on 4th January.

Newton Matupi and Sue Bacon who are leading the project flew out to help co-ordinate finishing work on Phase 1 of the school and represented ASC at the opening ceremony. They described the atmosphere as absolutely amazing and filled with so much joy and happiness.

There was a huge turnout of the community and celebrations went on all day with dancing and singing in colourful traditional costumes, poetry recitals and many inspiring speeches. There were speeches from village heads, members of the school committee, heads of feeder schools and of course from the new headmaster Mr Adams

Chirwa and his deputy – all incredibly grateful for the very generous financial support from donors and for the very hard work of the ASC Team that has enabled this all to happen.

Moving forwards

We are now working closely with an engineering company for phase 2 of the build which is providing their services pro bono.

A community engagement exercise was carried out in November with pupils, parents and other community members to gather their views on how they envisage the school to be and all the elements of the design that are important to them. This was a great success and we plan to run additional community engagement events on aspects such as creating a permaculture garden and conserving surrounding forests in due course.

Fundraising success

The last few months has been extremely busy with
Newton overseeing the installation of a borehole to
provide water, completing toilets, ensuring doors
and windows and other work have been completed in the new teachers’ houses, etc.

Thanks to this hard work and the immense generosity of all our amazing donors the school now comprises:

Two classrooms with desk and chairs and the school office
Two teachers houses
Temporary latrines for girls, boys and teachers
A bore hole with both a solar powered pump and a hand pump providing clean water to the school and the community

Fundraising

Inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of the community ASC has worked hard to raise funds for the project which will eventually allow 200 children both girls and boys to be educated.

The Summer of 2021 has been extremely busy with a few very generous donors coming forward together with fund raising events featuring sponsored walks and triathlons to help meet
the cost of the first phase of the build.